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With more than 7,000 breweries operating in the U.S. today, it’s hard to imagine a time when brewing beer was illegal. But Coors Brewing Company remembers. When the 18th Amendment, which outlawed the sale and consumption of alcohol, was officially ratified into the U.S. Constitution on January 16, 1919, the Golden-based brewery had already been making its trademark lagers for more than 40 years.
To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the start of Prohibition, AC Golden Brewing Co.—the craft and import division of MillerCoors—is rereleasing Batch 19, a pre-Prohibition-style lager, only on draft and exclusively for the Centennial State. (The brew was originally distributed to select markets from 2010 to 2015, before being pulled from the brewery’s portfolio.)
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“We brought back Batch 19 for a couple reasons,” says David Coors, president of AC Golden. “2019 marks the 100th anniversary [of Prohibition], so we thought it was timely to reintroduce it. And since Batch 19 went away in 2015, there has been pent up demand for the beer. We’re glad to bring it back for Coloradans to enjoy.”
The recipe for Batch 19, which dates back more than 100 years, was discovered in one of the brewery’s recipe logbooks. It’s naturally filtered, unpasteurized, and uses a combination of Noble hops (the European hop varieties responsible for giving Continental lagers their signature flavors) and two types of malt to create an interesting combination of spicy, herbal, and biscuity notes in a medium-bodied 5.5 percent ABV beverage.
Batch 19 is available at select locations throughout the state, including Walter’s 303 Pizzeria & Publik House in Denver and the Buffalo Rose in Golden.